Blogger Christian Payne (pictured left) argues why the Digital Economy Bill needs more debate - and how he didn't find it on the BBC.
Contribute to the discussion at #cojodebill. Christian can been found on Twitter under the alias @Documentally.
I don't turn on BBC radio to feel disgusted. Some might want that from their entertainment but I'd rather be informed. These are troubled times in the UK at the moment. Times that call for the general public to be involved in important discussion.
Tuesday will see a debate in Parliament on one of the most complex and controversial pieces of legislation this country has seen, the Digital Economy Bill.
The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords last year and debated in long sessions by peers. The time set aside in the Commons debate on Tuesday should allow MPs to discuss the 24,000-word document for about an hour. Hardly enough time for proper scrutiny and debate.
The Government, however, has been adamant, as has the Conservative front bench, to rush this Bill through Parliament.
The result could be that this Bill becomes law. In my mind, an unjust, freedom-crippling law.
We need to be having conversations now about how the internet is vital to so many businesses/families/educational establishments and individuals everywhere. It's not somewhere you just go to while away the evening.
On hearing the Jeremy Vine show yesterday, I truly felt all was lost.
Vine has a massive audience who deserve to witness intelligent discussion. They are, after all, the guardians of public opinion. These people, his listeners, may not be involved in communicating online like so many of us do. They may take all that is mentioned on his show as gospel. So when one ignorant comment followed another and sensationalist tales flowed thick and heavy, I wanted to know where the balance was.
I listened right to the end of the show in the hope of hearing stories of how the internet does not make us evil; of how it does not nurture the worst in humanity. Nothing. It was as if Vine egged on his female guest from the Scottish Daily Mail to tell more tales of woe and destruction. "Boy killed by the internet!!!"
How can we blame the listener for forming the opinion that we need more controls, more restriction, more laws?
The Digital Economy Bill is technical and deep problems remain unresolved. Rushing through disconnection and website blocking would be undemocratic and an abuse of parliamentary power; it would show contempt for back benchers and be a serious blow for the legitimacy of the legislation.
Vine's show talked about how freedom of speech led to the abuse of that freedom; how society is breaking down into a vile pit of abusive name calling and hostility.
In truth, the spaces where I communicate are relatively self-policing. I rarely come across any form of flaming or abuse. People involved are normally instantly blocked and removed from the network along with all connected conversations.
All I bear witness to in my internet spaces is collaboration, intelligent discussion, conversation and fun. These social media models nurture peaceful and creative interaction. They are rapidly spreading all over the net.
We already have ISP (internet service provider) monitoring. There is already a digital fingerprint left wherever we venture online.
Yet corporations now struggling to maintain their profits in a failing industry are piling their resources into lobbying for more restrictions and barriers on a communication channel some countries have declared a human right.
Government ministers are proposing to remove debate and parliamentary accountability. The likelihood is that ministers will try to prevent parliamentary debate from happening, in order for the Bill to pass with the disconnection clauses intact.
Right now, more than ever, we need our media to document the conversations we are having around this time and to do so in a balanced and informed manner. We don't need the likes of Jeremy Vine vilifying the internet with the slow 'Daily Mailification' of our trusted news sources.
If the Executive gets its way, whatever gets passed into the Bill will be agreed behind closed doors.
It would be nice if Members of Parliament listened to the thousands of people who are now emailing their MPs to demand a debate. This is mainly thanks to a joint campaign run by the Open Rights Group and 38 Degrees.
This is a pivotal time in the history of communication in our country. I won't be listening to Jeremy Vine again. I don't think he realises just what it is he is doing. Is it too much to ask for a journalist to do a little research?
